Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (also known as Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For)[4][5][6] is a 2014 American action crime anthology film and follow-up to the 2005 film Sin City. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, the script is written by Miller and is primarily based on the second book in the Sin City series by Miller, A Dame to Kill For.[7]
This article is about the film. For the graphic novel on which it is partly based, see A Dame to Kill For.Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Frank Miller
Sin City
by Frank Miller
- Robert Rodriguez
- Boriss Teterevs
- Aaron Kaufman
- Stephen L'Heureux
- Sergei Bespalov
- Alexander Rodnyansky
- Mark Manuel
Robert Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez
Carl Thiel
- Dimension Films
- Aldamisa Entertainment
- Demarest Films
- Troublemaker Studios
- Miramax
- Solipsist Films
- A.R. Films
- The Fyzz Facility[1]
- August 19, 2014 (TCL Chinese Theatre)
- August 22, 2014 (United States)
102 minutes[2]
United States
English
$65 million[3]
$39.4 million[4]
One of the smaller plots of the film is based on the short story "Just Another Saturday Night", which is collected in Booze, Broads, & Bullets, the sixth book in the comic series. Two original stories ("The Long Bad Night" and "Nancy's Last Dance") were created exclusively for the film written by Miller. The film stars an ensemble cast including returning cast members Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Jaime King, Powers Boothe (in his final film role), and Bruce Willis. Newcomers to the series include Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, Dennis Haysbert, Ray Liotta, Christopher Lloyd, Jamie Chung, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Meloni, Stacy Keach, Lady Gaga, Alexa Vega, Julia Garner, and Juno Temple.
The film was released on August 22, 2014, on 2D, 3D and RealD 3D.[8][9][10] Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill For was a box-office bomb, grossing $39.4 million against its $65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics.
Plot[edit]
"Just Another Saturday Night"[edit]
Marv regains consciousness on a highway overlooking The Projects, surrounded by several dead young men and a crashed police car, with no memory of how he got there. He retraces his steps, recalling that since it's Saturday, he watched Nancy Callahan dance at Kadie's Saloon. Stepping outside, he encounters four rich frat boys burning a homeless man alive. When Marv intervenes, the leader of the frat boys shoots him in the arm, calling him "Bernini Boy", which Marv mishears as "Bernie". They flee, and Marv follows them, stealing a police car on the way, which he crashes into their car, leading to his blackout and memory loss. He follows the two surviving frat boys into The Projects, the neighborhood where he grew up. With the assistance of the deadly residents lurking in the shadows, he dispatches the frat boys. He questions the leader about being called "Bernini Boy", and learns that it is the brand of coat he is wearing. After slitting the boy's throat, he considers his coat and realizes he cannot remember how he acquired it.
"The Long Bad Night (Part I)"[edit]
Johnny, a cocky young gambler, arrives in Sin City and heads to Kadie's place. He immediately hits the jackpot on multiple slot machines. Taking a young waitress, Marcie, with him as a good luck charm, he buys into the backroom poker game led by the all-powerful Senator Roark. Johnny repeatedly wins in the high-stakes game, and cleans the senator out. One other player, the corrupt police lieutenant Liebowitz, warns him to flee the city. Instead, Johnny takes Marcie out for a night on the town. He walks her home, and Roark's goons suddenly attack him. He fights them off, and tells Marcie to meet him at a hotel, and he is escorted into Roark's limousine. In payment for the humiliation he suffered at the card game, Roark takes back his money, and uses a pair of pliers to break the fingers of Johnny's playing hand. They toss Johnny out of the car, and the Senator shoots him in the leg. Roark reveals that he recognized Johnny as his illegitimate son. However, he remarks that he only considered his dead son Roark Jr., his flesh and blood. He leaves Johnny alive, preferring to let him suffer, and Johnny swears revenge.
"A Dame to Kill For"[edit]
Years before "The Big Fat Kill", Dwight McCarthy attempts to put his violent past behind him, working as a private detective and leading a life of complete sobriety, and struggles daily to refuse his inner demons. After saving the life of Sally, a sex worker who is nearly murdered by her businessman lover, he receives an unexpected phone call from his former lover Ava Lord, who left Dwight four years prior for a wealthy tycoon, Damien Lord. She begs him to meet her at Kadie's saloon, and despite his embittered feelings, he agrees. When Ava arrives, she begs forgiveness for leaving him, and implies she is afraid for her life before her massive chauffeur, Manute, arrives to escort her home. Unable to get her out of his mind, Dwight sneaks into Damien Lord's estate, where he observes Ava swimming, but is caught and beaten. Dwight is returned home, where a nude Ava waits for him. He tries to throw her out, but can't resist her and they make love. She tells him that Damien and Manute torture her physically and mentally, and she knows Damien will kill her soon. Manute arrives and viciously beats a naked Dwight, sending him out the window with a single punch.
Determined to rescue Ava, Dwight recruits Marv to help him, and they mount an assault on Lord's compound. Marv attacks Manute, putting him in traction, and tearing out his eye. Dwight confronts Damien Lord, who denies Ava's accusations, and an enraged Dwight beats him to death. As he reacts in horror, Ava appears and shoots Dwight several times, taunting him, and thanking him, for helping her murder her husband, and take over his fortune. She shoots him in the face and forces him to fall out of a window, where Marv rescues him and takes him to Old Town. Dwight's old flame, Gail, recognizes him and saves his life. With the help of Gail, and the deadly assassin Miho, Dwight undergoes reconstructive surgery on his face, and plots his revenge.
Meanwhile, two detectives, Mort and Bob, investigate Damien's death. Ava claims Dwight was an obsessive ex-lover, and he killed her husband in a jealous rage. Bob is skeptical, but Ava seduces Mort, who believes her every word. They begin an affair and Ava pressures him to find and kill Dwight. When Mort, obsessed with Ava, attempts to track Dwight down in Old Town, an action that would break the truce between the police and the prostitutes, Bob attempts to stop him. An enraged Mort shoots Bob in the face, then commits suicide afterward. Out of options, Ava reluctantly partners with the mob boss Wallenquist.
Dwight, with his face newly reconstructed, is accompanied by Gail and Miho, posing as Wallenquist's man from Texas. Inside Ava's estate, however, Manute sees past the new face, and captures Dwight. Gail and Miho strike from Dwight's car, and Dwight shoots Manute with a hidden .45 he had up his left sleeve. Six bullets fail to kill him, and Manute aims shakily at Dwight, as Ava unexpectedly grabs one of Manute's guns, shooting Manute several times. She attempts to convince Dwight to pair with her, and that the pain he suffered revealed his true intentions, but Dwight shoots her mid-kiss, and she dies in his arms.
"The Long Bad Night (Part II)"[edit]
Johnny visits an unlicensed doctor, Kroenig, who shoots up heroin before trading his services for Johnny's last $40, and his shoes. Realizing he left Marcie unprotected, Johnny rushes to his hotel, but finds Roark waiting for him, along with Marcie's dismembered head and hands. Again, Roark lets him go. Intent on taking down Roark, Johnny scrounges a dollar from a sympathetic waitress, Bertha, which he uses to regain enough money playing slots to buy his way into Roark's game the following night. Playing a card shark's con, Johnny folds his first few hands, allowing Roark to taunt him about his dead mother. He once again cons Roark into going all in, then reveals his winning hand. Johnny taunts Roark, reminding him that tonight's story of how the same man beat him twice will follow him for the rest of his life. His vengeance completed, Johnny smiles resignedly, a single tear running down his face as Roark shoots him in the head, commanding his men to get rid of the body.
"Nancy's Last Dance"[edit]
Four years after "That Yellow Bastard", Nancy Callahan is in a deep depression over John Hartigan's death. She is obsessed with getting revenge on Senator Roark for having driven Hartigan to kill himself. As she wallows in despair, the ghost of Hartigan watches over her, unable to reach her but still attempting to help. On the same night that Johnny joins the backroom poker game, Nancy attempts to shoot Roark from the stage of Kadie's, but she can't bring herself to pull the trigger.
Nancy hallucinates a visit from Roark, and shortly thereafter cuts her hair and smashes a mirror, using its shards to cut her face. She decides to get Marv to help her kill Roark by showing him the scars, and making him believe that Roark was responsible. As they step out of the club, they meet a motorcycle gang that are there to shoot up the place. Marv kills two, but leaves their leader for Nancy to finish off. The pair mount an assault on Roark's compound. Marv slaughters Roark's bodyguards, while Nancy picks off the guards with a crossbow. Marv is wounded, but Nancy continues alone to confront Roark. Roark shoots her first in the side, then the leg, and is about to finish her off. Suddenly, Hartigan's ghost appears in the mirror, startling Roark long enough for Nancy to recover and kill him.
Cancelled sequel[edit]
Wallace was set to appear in Sin City 3, which was to be directed by Rodriguez and Frank Miller. Rodriguez said he wanted Johnny Depp to play the part. Depp was originally supposed to play the part of Benicio del Toro's Jack "Jackie Boy" Rafferty; however, filming of Sin City conflicted with that of Depp's projects at the time. Depp expressed great interest in being a part of the Sin City franchise.
Frank Miller revealed at the 2014 Comic-Con that he and director Robert Rodriguez had discussions about a potential third Sin City film.[82] Miller said at the event, "So you better show up for number two, or they won't pay for it".[82] Due to the poor box office numbers for Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, and mixed reception of the film, plans for the third Sin City film were cancelled.[83]
TV series[edit]
Dimension Films planned to develop a soft reboot of the series for television; Stephen L'Heureux, who produced the second film, was to oversee the series with Sin City creator Frank Miller.[84] The new TV series would feature new characters and timelines and be more like the comics rather than the films.[85] On November 15, 2019, Legendary Pictures bought the rights for the television series.[86]